GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF TYPES 413
uninitiated in psychological matters becomes an obvious
fact, when once attention has been drawn to it. Who
does not know those taciturn, impenetrable, often shy
natures, who form such a vivid contrast to these other
open, sociable, serene maybe, or at least friendly and
accessible characters, who are on good terms with all
the world, or, even when disagreeing with it, still hold
a relation to it by which they and it are mutually,
affected.
Naturally, at first, one is inclined to regard such differ-
ences as mere individual idiosyncrasies. But anyone with
the opportunity of gaining a fundamental knowledge of
many men will soon discover that ^ch a far-reaching con-
trast does not merely concern the individual case, but is
a question of typical attitudes, with a universality far
greater than a limited psychological experience would at
first assume. In reality, as the preceding chapters will
have shown, it is a question of a fundamental opposition;
at times clear and at times obscure, but always emerging
whenever we are dealing with individuals whose personality
is in any way pronounced. Such men are found not only
among the educated classes, but in every rank of society;
with equal distinctness, therefore, our types can be demon-
strated among labourers' and peasants as among the most
differentiated members of a nation. Furthermore, these
types over-ride the distinctions of sex, since one finds the
same contrasts amongst women of all classes. Such a
universal distribution could hardly arise at the instigation
of consciousness, i.e. as the result of a conscious and
deliberate choice of attitude. If this were the case, a
definite level of society, linked together by a similar educa-
tion and environment and, therefore, correspondingly local-
ized, would surely have a majority representation of such
an attitude. But the actual facts are just the reverse, for
the types have, apparently, quite a random distribution.